So I just changed my rear shoes, put it all back together, and cycled the e-brake for a while to adjust it.
Took it around the block and now the pedal goes almost to the floor before engaging the brakes.
The e-brake still has to max out before it holds solid, but could the adjustment actually be off enough to cause that much pedal travel?
Any other ideas/suggestions?

 

did you bleed the brakes? or adjust the rear shoes?

 

Did your drums slide right on nice and easy? Sounds like you need to pull them off and adjust the shoes out.

 

as peow130 mentioned .. did you crack the brake bleader ?



if so .. you will need to bleed the brakes






.

 

if he only replaced the shoes then there was no need to crack any brake bleeders or line for that matter.

 

IF he cracked them, he'd need to bleed his brakes.
Hence the reason i asked.
It's possible his rears need to be adjusted. And it's possible he needs to bleed his brakes. You don't feel the rear brakes when you press the pedal, you feel the front pressure.

 

You don't even have to remove the wheels to adjust the rear brakes... There's a rubber cover on the inside of the wheel and the star wheel is right behind it... IIRC the owners manual will state that from all the way in to all the way out, the ebrake handle should click something like 17 times...

 

The E-brake in proper adjustment, should be 8-12 clicks to hold solid.

 

I appreciate all the responses guys.

I've got a Haynes and the FSM, so I know all this stuff...
I probably should have been more clear though.

I didn't touch any of the bleeders or anything that would cause it to need bleeding.
When I put the drum back on, I had the adjusters all the way in.
Then I cycled the e-brake a whole bunch to adjust the shoes out.
But... it still needs to be maxed out before it will actually hold.
I'm not worried about the e-brake, cause I can just adjust the cable to get it down to 12 clicks or whatever.

The problem is the brake pedal. It was completely normal before I changed the shoes, but now it goes almost to the floor before engaging the brakes.
Cycling the e-brake definitely adjusted the shoes out, but is it possible that the e-brake is incapable of adjusting them far enough?
...Or that just swapping the shoes might have somehow killed the seals on the pistons??

 

with the drums on you need to adjust the brakes so you have just a slight drag. That will give you the low pedal feel as the wheel cylinder has to move the shoes to take up the added distance.

If the brakes are not adjusted up to start I don`t think the e-brake will tighten them up.

If it does I never had any luck getting it to work. Or just found it easier to adjust them up by hand. Once the brakes are adjusted up it keeps them adjusted .

I have also found once the brakes were seated over a few days they need more adjustment some times.

 

x2 on more adjustment and more seat time, I just did mine and had the same problem but I cycled the ebrakes on each side right from the lever. (not the one inside the truck.) Made all the difference in the world.

 

Ok, that's what I figured. I'll see how it goes.